A new application of texture unit coding to mass classification for mammograms

Texture is one of important features of masses in mammograms. A recent texture unit-based texture spectrum approach, referred to as texture unit coding (TUC) has shown promise in texture classification. This paper presents a new application of the TUC to mass classification in mammograms. The TUC generates a texture spectrum for a texture image that can be used to describe the characteristics of masses. It also develops an information divergence (ID)-based discrimination criterion to measure the discrepancy between two texture spectra, a concept yet to explore in texture analysis. The TUC along with ID are further applied to mass classification in mammograms where the minimammographic database provided by the Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) is used for experiments.